IPS Board must look ahead with sense of urgency

Eugene White came to Indianapolis Public Schools with a sense of urgency in 2005. Graduation rates were abysmal. Test scores were scandalous. And expectations for improvement were unacceptably low.

Unfortunately, the urgency dwindled as the years went on. In time, the superintendent who once shook up the district with demands for higher standards and improved discipline became the chief defender of the status quo.

Now, it's the IPS Board that must renew the call for urgency within the troubled district. Despite the gains IPS has made in recent years, there's still a long way to go in improving graduation rates, test scores and other measures of student achievement.

The board's first order of business must be a smooth transition, not only in the administrative offices but also in individual schools as the effects from changes at the top begin to ripple throughout the district.

The reform-minded leaders of the board were given a strong mandate from the November elections to drive change in IPS. They must continue to seize that mandate with boldness, including in the search for White's replacement.

Bold moves by White have benefitted the system, it must be acknowledged. Toughened staff accountability, expansion of magnet programs and other measures raised test scores and graduation rates and won him many accolades, including state superintendent of the year. Improvement eventually stalled, however, in the face of his strong-willed style and his defensiveness toward reforms urged by state and community leaders and education organizations such as The Mind Trust.

Proposals in The Mind Trust's wide-ranging 2011 report called for drastic reduction in the IPS bureaucracy and autonomy for individual schools. White rebuffed those recommendations; but they deserve close consideration from the board and a new superintendent.

Other changes must be weighed as well if IPS is going to do justice to the more than 30,000 children, most from impoverished backgrounds, who depend on a far-from- adequate system for their future.

Meanwhile, a salute must be afforded White, one of the most significant figures in Indianapolis education history. His detractors must concede he has accomplished much; his admirers, that there's still much to be done.

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IPS Board must look ahead with sense of urgency

Eugene White came to Indianapolis Public Schools with a sense of urgency in 2005. Graduation rates were abysmal. Test scores were scandalous. And expectations for improvement were unacceptably low.